The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-10-26

at Washington and he was Silas Wright,
then United States senator. He telegraphed
A declination Of the nomination, but the CON
vention would not trust the telegraph on
such an important matter and they came By
ears 10 Washington to persuade him to ac-
cept the second place on the ticket with Polk
He refused. however. and Dallas was nOni-
mated
Morse eventually madea fortune out OF the
telegraph, and in lsj9 some of the foreign
power, made him present Of SsO,ep The
king OF Prussia gave him gold snuh box,
aud he received n present from the sultan Of
Turkey of decoration belonging 10 the court
in diamonds. STILL while his bill was before
congress he said one day that he had enough
money TO pay his board and get out Of Wash
inetOn if the bill did not pass. II was passed
the last dav Of the congress Of 1873, and II
gave him $4,000 10 build an experimental
line between Washington and Baltimore He
first tried to put the wire in a lead pipe IN
the ground but finally adopted the pole sys-
TEN which is now in use.
To show how little the people then knew OF
the telegraph, no less man than the secre-
tarv OF the treasury asked Morse how large a
bundle could be sent over the wires, and he
wanted 10 know whetherit might not be pos
sible for the United States mail 10 be carried
by them \ congressman brought bundle
Of dirty shirts TO the telegraph Office IN the
CAPITOL and wanted them sent 20 Baltimore
for washing Dolly Madison sent message
70 friend of hers in Baltimore and the tele-
graph was the great excitement Of the hour
Morse at this time offered his whole right IN
the patent 10 the government for s1WVu.
and was, fortunately for him, laughed AT and
refused.
l. was upon this that the Baltimore and
Ohio Telegraph company, during the time II
was fighting the Western Union. based il
claim to be the oldest telegraph company III
the world in that il held this line between
Washington and Baltimore upon which mes
sages were first sent. Now the United state,
has l64, 954 miles Of telegraph wire instead OF
forty. and il SURPRISES the other countries OF
the world in rs telegraphic business. the
whole world has more than g0.0JO miles of
telegraph lines, or enough TO put wire
twenty-fotir times around the whole world
and have some thousand OF miles to spare.
China has only 81 Mules OF wire, and when
you consider that rs population IS perhalr
six times that Of the United States you can
see what immense opportunity Is open 70
such a scheme A. that OF Wharton Barker
and Mtkiewicz China has inst 22-lOo of
mile of wire TO every 1000 square miles Of
territory. OF in round numbers hardly more
than foot of wire TO every square mile of
her territory Belgium, on the other hand,
which has perhaps the most telegraph
wire in proportion 10 is territory, has
one-half mile of wire 10 each square
mile Of territory, and France has one
third OF mile Of wire 10 each square
mile of her area In ell Europe there Is not
much more than twice the amount OF iele-
craph lines thai there are IN the United
.5tates. and We send about 'o,rrOeD mes
sapes year "a hall that number 10y Great
Britain. Japan is rapidly increasing as
telegraphic nation, and it sends more than
=. 900 900 OF messages year Ills iisactivltN
in this regard that has stirred up China, AMI
am told by travellers that the enterprise OF
the japanese is having great influence upon
their Chinese neghbors.
Bancroft, the historian. works ifofH : 70
O'Clock every day, and ne does not seem t.
GROW older | came across a curious item
about him the other day in ali old book pub
lished thirty-siH years ago. The book gave